It falls to Global Times to consider that those responsible for the ‘floor show/ridiculous farce/profanity’ have support, and the city is increasingly complicated. ‘Complicated’ (also known as ‘contradictions’) is Communist-speak for ‘maybe we are partly responsible for screwing things up here’.

This is a battle of wits. The Hong Kong government, under Liaison Office direction, is potentially walking into a trap by fixating on punishing a handful of young democratically elected representatives for not conforming to the ceremonial symbolism. The radicals also risk falling into a trap, if they give officials evidence to convince the public that they are mere troublemakers, money-wasters, sympathetic to Japanese militarism or – heaven forbid – getting boring.

But the battle is between a lumbering and predictable, simple-minded elephant and some agile, bright and funny gnats. When Sixtus Leung and Yau Wai-ching get their second chance to take their oaths correctly on Wednesday, they could do worse than recite the wording 100 percent accurately, in finest Mandarin, preferably wearing little Mao badges and carrying mysterious red-bound books – with, of course, totally straight faces.